After hours child care

Preparing your child for the start of preschool

17 December 2015 by Channa Van Den Acker

If you are looking to prepare your child for the start of preschool, there are some easy steps you can take before school starts. Here are some things that parents and carers can do to help their child prepare for a preschool environment.

Practise waiting

Self control is an important skill for young children starting preschool, and children need to control their urges to play their games rather than the activities the teacher is trying to get the class to work on. You can help your child adjust to the need to wait a little longer for their needs to be met by taking some little breaks before you meet their needs. You can also help them by modelling the self control you use, by discussing the things that you want to do but that you are choosing not to do for some reason. When it comes to self control, practise is extremely important, so you can inject these small self control exercises into your day-to-day life.

Practise sharing

Preschool comes with a new challenge of needing to share and take turns with other children. This can be especially challenging for children who are only children or who have siblings who are very far apart in age. You can help children develop this ability by setting up playdates with similarly aged children. It can also be a great idea to have some playdates with some of their classmates after the first few days of class. 

Practise your before school routine

If your child has been staying at home so far and is not used to getting up at a set time each morning, it can be useful to start moving wake up time, breakfast and getting dressed to a time closer to the time you'll need to be up for preschool. It can be useful to leave some extra time just to make sure your child has enough time to have a filling breakfast before school. Having a sensible breakfast at school allows children to stay full for longer before they need a snack and improves focus and behaviour.

As a parent seeing your child head off to preschool is a huge new stage of their life. By practising some simple life skills at home you can start to prepare your child to have a successful start to preschool, which will help them as they prepare for future formal schooling.

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